Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year): Twelve - My Favourite Posts of 2013

Happy New Year! Today is the tenth day of Christmas, and the third day of 2014! I'm sad that the festive season is nearly over but looking forward to all that I'm going to achieve in this new year.

Today I've decided to take one last look back at 2013 and share my favourite blog posts that I've written (and videos that I've made) this year. I posted 77 times on this fleeting dream this year, which beats all previous records! I've kept up with my Monday Amusements and took part in Top Ten Tuesday as often as I felt able.

My favourite Top Ten Tuesday topic of 2013 was from January, Most Frustrating Characters Ever. It was so much fun to write, and I loved reading other people's lists too.

I wouldn't be the person I am today without libraries, so in February I celebrated National Libraries Day by writing a list of Ten Things I Love About Libraries - a topic I will be revisiting soon for Bookish Brits.

May was one of my most productive months, at least on this blog. I wrote another of my favourite Top Ten Tuesday posts - Books Dealing with Tough Subjects, and then launched Diary of a Crush Week, to celebrate the new paperback release of this series I've loved since my teens. It began with my first Celebrating Series post, and although I didn't get to write any more of them in 2013 I have lots of ideas for series to feature this year.

In June, before packing up all my books for The Great Redecoration, I filmed a bookshelf tour. This was my first YouTube video ever! It's quite dark and shaky, but I've learned a lot about making videos since, thanks to the Bookish Brits project, and when I eventually get around to filming my 'after' bookshelf tour, I'm sure it will be much better!

As the days got shorter, I started to think about getting the most out of the limited daylight, and in September I wrote Reading in the Afternoon, Blogging in the Evening. I have started writing in the morning and afternoon too, so that I can get the most out of my energy first thing, but I still prefer to blog in the evening.

Finally, in December, I started this Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year) series. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and will definitely be revisiting it next year. I enjoyed writing them all, but I think my favourite post was number four - Presents I Would Buy for Characters.

If you write your own round-up of your favourite posts, please do link it up below, or if you'd prefer, share the link to a blog post that you're particularly proud of in the comments.

Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year): Eleven - 2014 Reading Goals

I am not going to set any reading goals for 2014. I will not be joining any reading challenges.

It's not there aren't reading-related things that I'd like to do. I'd love to demolish half of my TBR and discover dozens of new authors. I'd like to read more classics and more literary fiction and more of everything I already love and read regularly.

It's not that there aren't challenges that I could probably complete with little effort. The New Author challenge is quite easy, and I could take part in multiple YA challenges, I'm sure!

And it's not that I haven't enjoyed taking part in challenges in the past. I think that reading challenges are a great way to push yourself to read more and to share what you're reading. I was even thinking of hosting a new challenge this year.

But I did not do very well on my 2013 reading challenges. I haven't finished any of them, and I'm not going to. I think I need a break. I think I need to make it easy on myself and to let myself read more for pleasure, without a target in mind.

I am setting goals for other areas of my life, and I want to really focus and get lots done. I don't want to have lots of goals for my career and blogs and hobbies all jostling around in my brain, competing for attention.

So 2014 will be the year without reading goals! I'm nervous and excited. Mostly excited. And I expect that by the end of the year I'll be looking forward to 2015's challenges!

Are you setting yourself any reading goals for 2014?

Monday Amusements 25

My latest piece of book post! This is such a striking cover, I really like it.

This is a short one today as I've been far too busy over Xmas to spend as much time as I usually do collecting links!

Jo at weartheoldcoat got to interview Melina Marchetta!!! I'm not one to overuse exclamation marks but I think this justifies it. I don't even have time to read it right now (I want to read it properly, not when I have twenty other things on my mind) but I thought I'd include it anyway as it looks fab!

Happy Christmas and Reading Resolutions for 2014 from For Books' Sake, featuring a top ten of women authors to try next year.

It's a sad fact of life that few of us have the space to keep every book we acquire. A Brief Guide To Culling Your Books at Good Books Good Wine is a very sensible guide to completing the difficult task known as the bookshelf cull.

Finally, a bit of humour - How to Write the Perfect YA Heroine (via Malinda Lo).

What have you been reading over Christmas? Have I missed any great blog posts while I've been eating and telly watching and eating and partying and eating?

Monday Amusements 24: Christmas vs New Year

  I'm really enjoying all the Bookish Brits year end videos. I just watched Michelle's latest, above.   Even though I'm really busy with Christmas preparations, I'm desperately trying to read as many books as I can to try to get at least a little bit closer to reaching my 2013 reading challenge goals. I know I won't reach any of them, but I'd like to have a better overall total! This year I was a bit boring and picked things I thought would be achievable or that would get the most of my TBR down, and I really want to get excited about reading again, so I think that next year I need to be easier on myself and simply pick the challenges that sound the most fun! As always I'll be turning to the A Novel Challenge blog for ideas. I'm feeling drawn towards the Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge and I'd love to do the Arthurian Literature Challenge, but we'll see how I feel at the start of January!

I've also been thinking about my blogging plans for next year (I really enjoyed Jamie's post at The Perpetual Page-Turner about her blogging plans and ideas) - I'm longing to try to plan out the whole year in advance, but I'm not sure I'm quite capable of that yet! Maybe six months? Three?

One thing I definitely must do next year is re-read or watch Cold Comfort Farm - this piece reminded me how much I love it.

Back to the here and now - I loved Faye's post 'Watch Out, It’s the Grinch!' - I love Christmas for all the reasons she mentions. I especially love the decorations - every time I'm out I find myself grinning in delight and exclaiming over all the lights I see on buildings, even ordinary houses. I also adored From My Bookshelves / Books for Winter at prettybooks. I would be requesting as many of those books as I could from the library right now, had I not already picked out my reading for the month. Oh well, January and February are winter months too, right?

My favourite review this week is by Debbie at Snuggling on the Sofa (I've been catching up on the other Bookish Brits' blogs, can you tell?). The Naturals sounds so exciting!

Have you thrown yourself into New Year preparations already, or are you like me, determined to squeeze as much as you can into 2013?